Quotehanger

  • "The fact is that once I was playing again I was automatically available for everything on the schedule and that meant Stanford. I make no apologies for that and, as for the suggestion that I should waive the fee or give it to charity, I don't see why I should be a special case."
    Steve Harmison feels strongly about suggestions that he came out of one-day retirement in order to play the Stanford Twenty20 for 20

    Sep 7, 2008

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    Articles tagged as: swing

    Suck it and see

    By Will Monday, last week, 3 Comments »

    The ICC are being uncomfortably sensible lately. The latest piece of common sense from Dubai surrounds Marcus Trescothick’s “revelation” that he and England used Murray Mints (surely the finest mintage) to help swing the ball during the 2005 Ashes.

    “It was my job to keep the shine on the new ball for as long as possible with a bit of spit and a lot of polish,” he said in his autobiography Coming Back To Me. “And through trial and error I finally settled on the type of spit for the task at hand.

    “It had been common knowledge in county cricket for some time that certain sweets produced saliva which, when applied to the ball for cleaning purposes, enabled it to keep its shine for longer and therefore its swing.” He found Murray Mints worked the best.

    Of course, using artificial means of doctoring a cricket ball is illegal (think bottle tops, sand, a handful of gravel, etc), but the laws surrounding sweets are less clear. After all, it’s only affecting the saliva - and the ICC showed hitherto hidden powers of sense when they told the BBC: “It depends on the evidence and circumstances, so if something is brought to our attention it would be dealt with,” he said. “But where do you stop, for example, if you start to try to stop everyone who is chewing gum?”

    Prezactly. This has been going on since WG Grace first wondered whether he should buy a razor. Moving on.

    3 Comments »



    Trent Bridge’s new stand

    By Will 3 months ago, 5 Comments »

    Trent Bridge’s new stand, on the Bridgford Road side, is unmissable. It leans backwards with the roof arcing upwards, in a white/cream colour - it’s quite a sight. All in all, Trent Bridge looks an absolute picture.

    Much discussion over the stand’s effects on swing, too. There’s a piece in the papers today - I forget where - which looks into it further, but the theory is that new stands (or buildings or trees) can create its owm mini micro-climate which helps the balls to swing even more. Trent Bridge has always assisted the swingers, but watch out for Anderson, Sidebottom, Mills and co tomorrow. Rain forecast Friday, but all the statistics suggest it’ll be a match for the bowlers.

    5 Comments »